What are my two Pekins doing? Video Included

[PeanutnCashew]

I have a male and female and they have done both head bobbing and what you showed in the video. It is cute

 

[duckmamma]

I think Mum's right...I see this behavior in wild mallards as well, almost always between the two larger males. One duck is trying to establish itself as the alpha duck, the leader of the pack. This type of behavior escalates during fall and wanes by late August...the male ducks' higher level of testosterone for breeding season makes it worse.
Looks like your Pekins that are fighting (albeit playfully) are your largest ducks, no? If they are the two big males, then one of them will establish itself as leader eventually, and the other male will submit. You'll see some bouts of the chest bumping and the nipping meanwhile, and they'll probably fight a bit now and then if the submissive duck forgets his place in the pecking order. In a bad fight, which is rare, the stronger duck will bite a toenail off the other one, and might nip the top of a wing where it joins the body, or very rarely even pull out some wing feathers. But I wouldn't worry about it...even ducks that fight amongst themselves aren't "killers."

 

[SouthsideDucks]

Ducks are like chickens, they have to establish a "pecking order". If you look closely, they are nipping at one another. They don't have hands or horns, so they use their necks to try and get a grip of the other one, who will try to dodge that to get a grip himself; look a little closer and you will see the one on the right is trying to unbalance the one on the left. Because they are 11 weeks old, it will look endearing, but when their hormones kick in the behaviour will become more determined and they will try to pull each others feathers out. A bit like it looks cute when two toddlers try to snatch toys from one another, but a whole different story when those two toddlers become hormonal teens

When a male is courting a female, its more a head bobbing style of communication (until he gets the green light, then he'll approach her from behind, grab the back of her neck, climb on to her back and begin treading her).

Now, I do hope I'm mistaken and its a pair being friendly; its just not how it looks to me from my experience.

I think Mum's right...I see this behavior in wild mallards as well, almost always between the two larger males. One duck is trying to establish itself as the alpha duck, the leader of the pack. This type of behavior escalates during fall and wanes by late August...the male ducks' higher level of testosterone for breeding season makes it worse.
Looks like your Pekins that are fighting (albeit playfully) are your largest ducks, no? If they are the two big males, then one of them will establish itself as leader eventually, and the other male will submit. You'll see some bouts of the chest bumping and the nipping meanwhile, and they'll probably fight a bit now and then if the submissive duck forgets his place in the pecking order. In a bad fight, which is rare, the stronger duck will bite a toenail off the other one, and might nip the top of a wing where it joins the body, or very rarely even pull out some wing feathers. But I wouldn't worry about it...even ducks that fight amongst themselves aren't "killers."

Interesting, thank you for the info. I'll have to watch the two of them more closely. If I take Iris away from the group she quacks but 'her' voice has changed and she sounds a bit like chicken today.

I am looking forward to seeing some drake feathers so I have a better sense of who is male here. I have 4 ducks around the same size 3 Pekins and one cayuga. They all get along well still, certainly no fights, nothing more then the silly behaviour you see in the video. Almost all of them are still getting the adult quack thing worked out. Do the males only nip other males as a sign of dominance or nip at females to establish pecking order? If we have too many males one or two will have to go freezer camping, so fingers crossed for more ladies then males.

I've noticed they head bop often, whenever I come to say hello. I always head bop back to them. All of them do it at once as if to say hello duck mamma - its so cute! I have not yet seen it used in courting, just in social duck conversation. Maybe they have to be a little older yet. So many things to learn and look forward too!

 

[Mum]

Males can nip females too, but its more gentle and a warning rather than anything else.

I'll keep my

for your male/female ratio

 

[TTeddy]

Do you have much problem with their feet...being immersed in damp/wet conditions all the time?

 

[SouthsideDucks]

Males can nip females too, but its more gentle and a warning rather than anything else.

I'll keep my

for your male/female ratio

Thanks for all the info, and your help. I guess really only time will tell with these Pekins who is who. I have only seen one other nip-like behavior and that is from the one dominate cayuga that we assumed must be male. He was nipping the everyone about 2 weeks ago and now as fully stopped. I assume he has now established himself as top duck and the rest now are trying to figure out where they are based on it. They have a lot of space during the day so we don't see much nippin, I think it happens but mostly overnight. I have my fingers crossed as well, and I'm feeling pretty lucky that my boys are not aggressive to one another.

Do you have much problem with their feet...being immersed in damp/wet conditions all the time?

We have not had any problems with their feet yet, but we've had an extremely dry summer so far. I think it has rained maybe 7 days all summer. We have been keeping their kiddie pool nice and fresh and giving them frozen treats in the pool. We took a whole bunch of dandelion leaves and threw them in the food processor, made them small blocks and froze them. They LOVE it. I check their feet once every 2 weeks or so... no injuries, foot issue or missing toenails...hehehe, luckily! We'll see how the fall and winter time go though!

 

[Mum]

We took a whole bunch of dandelion leaves and threw them in the food processor, made them small blocks and froze them. They LOVE it.

What a great idea!!

 

[SouthsideDucks]

The same two Pekins as in the video were in the pool just now doing a neck dance. I hope I explain this well enough because I didnt get a video, they were facing one another and moving their necks back and forth. One to the left, then facing, then to the right. What does this mean? Do you have any insight? They didn't touch one another this time, just did that funny neck dance.

 

[ducklucky]

We have 13, one male for sure. About half of them do the head bobbing thing to no one in particular, they will do it with me as well. They are about 16 weeks. It IS cute. Now when we let them out to their pool, it's a mad rush (just a kiddie pool) and they all mount on each other, it's like a duck orgy. No one cares whether they're boys, girls or whatever. One will stand on another and then another and so on and so on, like a train. This lasts for a couple of minutes and then they settle down and "behave." No one has gotten hurt, think they are just letting their hormones run free, and once they get through it, they don't do it again til the next day. Love that head bobbing though, sure it is a sign of affection and recognition. It looks like your two have a thing for each other, hard to tell from the video whether they are male/female or whatever, when they get excited they tend to "floof" a bit. But looks harmless and appears they are good friends. No harm done, right? As long as it's not aggression, looks normal. Have seen mine do the same, our male has picked a favorite female, and they kiss and nuzzle a lot, and make cooing sounds, and know for sure one is he and the other is she. Think you are safe!! Enjoy it and take pictures for your duck baby album.